Piers Morgan showed me how to hack into phones: journalist at the Leveson inquiry

Piers Morgan showed me how to hack into phones:Jeremy Paxman

LONDON — One of Britain’s most respected journalists said Wednesday former tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan showed him how to hack into phones 10 years ago, the latest twist in a scandal that has so far centred on Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Morgan, now a talk-show host at CNN, has consistently denied authorizing phone hacking while editor of the Daily Mirror.

The criminal practice has damaged Mr. Murdoch’s reputation, led to the closure of his News of the World newspaper and prompted a judicial inquiry into media standards.

On Wednesday, the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman told the inquiry Mr. Morgan had boasted to him at a lunch in 2002 about how easy it was to access the voicemail messages of cellphones.

“He turned to me and said, ‘Have you got a mobile phone?’ I said yes and he said, ‘Have you got a security setting on the message bit of it?’ ” Mr. Paxman said.

“I didn’t know what he was talking about. He then explained that the way to get access to people’s messages was to go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 and 1234, and if you didn’t put your own code in, his words, ‘you are a fool.’ ”

Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror, has denied any of its journalists hacked phones, but its shares fell sharply after Mr. Paxman’s appearance at the high-profile Leveson inquiry.

Mr. Morgan, who edited the News of the World in 1994-95 and the Mirror in 1995-2004, was called to appear before the inquiry last year after his name became associated with the scandal.

He had written in his published diaries about a “little trick” for eavesdropping on voicemails he had heard of as early as 2001.

Mr. Morgan told the inquiry in December the boasts were merely a repetition of rumours about journalistic “dark arts.”

Mr. Paxman said Mr. Morgan told him about phone hacking at the 2002 lunch at the Trinity Mirror offices in London, which was also attended by the Swedish television personality Ulrika Jonsson.

The Mirror had previously revealed Ms. Jonsson’s affair with the then-England soccer manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. Mr. Paxman said Mr. Morgan teased Ms. Jonsson he knew about private conversations between she and Mr. Eriksson.

An assistant for Mr. Morgan declined to comment Wednesday, but the former editor said on Twitter, “Right — that’s the last time I’m inviting Jeremy Paxman to lunch. Ungrateful little wretch.”

Mr. Morgan has also denied allegations from the former wife of Paul McCartney that he listened to a hacked voicemail message left for her by the former Beatle.

He bragged about hearing the message in a newspaper column in 2006, but has refused to divulge how he came upon it.